mr president at this particular time budgets are bound to be controversial and especially here in the european parliament
at the same time it has to be said that everybody has an opportunity to express views here and it is good to hear all the views expressed
that is one of the great strengths of the european parliament everybody can come have a view make a point and be listened to
regarding the budget itself obviously we are in a difficult situation economically and any increase is going to be perhaps misconstrued perhaps understandably so to a certain degree
however the bottom line here is that there is a two point three increase when inflation is expected to be two point eight the other point that must be made is that the european union has to deal with something in line with the overall context of the twenty-seven countries whereas some countries particularly my own country are suffering very badly at present
we have just come from a meeting thankfully with commissioner rehn who was very obliging with us
obviously in that situation people cannot understand any increase whatsoever even if it is less than inflation
be that as it may i think we have to make overall decisions we have to give commitments to various things we have to do we are going to see growth in terms of extra meps as a result of the lisbon treaty and hopefully also when croatia joins
one point i would make before i conclude is that all this brings to mind the point which president barroso has been making quite frequently we do need to have a full and frank discussion on own resources and perhaps particularly project bonds because the more finance the european union can get independently the less controversial budgets are going to be and the less we will be asking from the member states
ultimately i think we should be following the line of president barroso
